Ilocos mayor tagged in killings unseated

DINGRAS, Ilocos Norte ,Philippines  – This town’s controversial woman mayor was unseated yesterday morning after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) finally ruled on her disqualification in the May 2010 polls.

Mayor Marynette Gamboa, who will not finish her second term as Dingras mayor, was succeeded by Vice Mayor Erdio Valenzuela, who in turn was replaced by Ruben Marcos.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos personally administered the oath of office of Valenzuela before hundreds of Dingras residents gathered in front of the town hall.

Marcos described the occasion as “a new beginning for Dingras,” which is the rice granary of Ilocos Norte.

Gamboa has been tagged in the killings of a number of local officials and political rivals. She was alleged to be among the few political warlords in the province.

“Now we have sense of finality to this issue, a sense of closure,” said lawyer Alipio Alonzo Castillo III, Comelec provincial election supervisor.

Castillo, together with Marcos, officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Ilocos Norte police director Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan, served the writ of execution issued last Tuesday on Gamboa’s disqualification.

Gamboa, who chose not to attend Valenzuela’s oathtaking, “did not resist because she was aptly informed beforehand of the service of writ and subsequent oath-taking of the two officials,” Castillo said.

Neither were the unseated mayor’s lawyers there to receive the writ, he added.

Tension has gripped Dingras town due to the political rivalry between Gamboa and her opponents and the killings of local officials, the most recent of whom was municipal councilor Randolf Magno Sr. who was slain on Maundy Thursday.

Yesterday’s peaceful transition in this town, Castillo said, “shows we are capable of peace and good governance.”